Tea Party and Manga

Shirt.Woot customers can vote for
my entry "Tea Party v.2."

I entered a Shirt.Woot contest for the third consecutive time. The theme was kawaii (cutesy and adorable).

I 'm skipping out on the next weekly contest. Whew! I tried some new techniques such as fading out the side of a scene on a shirt and alternating warm and cool colors in main areas.

I guess I got really into the tea party scene, especially after reading manga about cafes and bakeries. 

Cafe/Dessert manga has become one of my guilty pleasures. After reading about takoyaki at a New Year festival, I tried some at Genki Living. Takoyaki is like a ball of bread with octopus bits and veggies. I would order it again. :)

Takoyaki

This type of manga genre can be very simple, but I think it makes the attitudes more pure and heart-warming. The heroines usually want to create happy moments for others and have strong determination. I stopped reading Kitchen Princess when the plot got complicated and tragic.

Kitchen Princess

Redesign a Book Cover

Original cover

I have entered a short story contest at Figment.com before, but I just noticed the book cover contests. You redesign the cover of a new young adult book. Entries have to be original work. You must own any photos used; So no stock photos. The first chapter is provided on the website to get a sense of the story.

Judging: The author chooses ten finalists, and then the public votes for those ten.

Prizes: Finalists get a signed copy of the book while the winner gets a signed copy and recognition for his/her winning entry as the new book cover.

Last month I entered the False Memory book cover contest. My entry was not selected as a finalists, but you can vote here until November 9th if you have a Facebook account. I root for four finalists. The winner will be announced on November 12.

Here is my entry done on Photoshop.

My entry

Factors I considered:
* How to play with title?
* How much of the story to tell? (I researched reviews.)
* How to target both genders?

Thoughts after entering:
* The author's name needs stand out a bit more.
* Try altering faces more to look less like referenced faces.
* I tried a clean look, but next time try background texture, which most young adult books have.
* The contest was a good exercise for design and Photoshop.

Because contests are not just about winning, here is one of my favorite postmodern quotes from Sonmi-451's section in Cloud Atlas:

So winners, Hae-Joo proposed, are the real losers because they learn nothing? What, then, are losers? Winners?

Original cover

The current contest for Beta has been extended to November 26. The rules are the same except for ages 13-25. Here is the contest page.

I probably will not enter the Beta contest because I want to finish a few current projects. There is 11 days left if I change my mind. The book synopsis actually reminds me of Sonmi-451 .

In this case, I root for Ashley's "I am a Beta" entry. =) I left a comment on her entry. Voting for this contest is not open yet.

Ashley's entry

For any Figment contest, I recommend checking contest details at least weekly. In both of the writing and book cover contests I entered, details including the deadline were changed without an announcement or email. In the writing contest, the deadline change did not work in my favor. =/

Good luck if you enter. Make the process a fun learning one.

Wax Figures and Non-existent Cupcakes

Wax figure of Steven Spielberg on the left.

Last Sunday I had a girls' trip in Hollywood mainly for the Madam Tussad's wax museum. As a Legoland employee, I got free admission for my group. =) We had a blast and I recommend the museum because some wax celebrities have scenery and props.

My friends and I had a list of events including the Johnny Cupcakes shop in L.A. Because Johnny sometimes has events that require you to wear one of his shirts, I wore the one I got at his college lecture.

Once again, Johnny Cupcakes is a shop that looks and even smells like a bakery, but the product is actually tee shirts. The only time cupcakes have actually been in the shop was on April Fool's Day. The shop is another illusion in Hollywood.

Johnny's customers buy limited shirts even when they don't have the money, but he does more than sell a product. Customers get to spend time with Johnny outside of his shop.

Every month, Johnny rents the Coolidge Theatre in Massachusetts to play one of his childhood movies such as The Goonies and Gremlins. He charges $7 or nothing for admission. For The Karate Kid, he gave out free karate headbands with cupcakes on them so that the theater was full of them. The Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles showing had free pizza. Sometimes Johnny dresses as a character, and he usually holds movie themed contests with themed prizes.


Johnny has held events at other shops too. He once tweeted that he would buy ice cream for anyone who showed up at the given time range at a certain ice cream shop. He did not sell anything. His existing loyal customers were appreciated.

A third type of event Johnny holds is charities. Customers have stayed up late hours with Johnny to help repair a kids' camp so it would open again after a year of closed doors. After repairs, they crashed at the camp for the night.

Although my friends and I did not make it to Johnny Cupcakes, I am glad I did wear one of his shirts. This week Johnny announced on a contest on Facebook:

"Post a photo of yourself recreating your favorite movie moment while wearing a Johnny Cupcakes shirt. Contestants will be entered into drawing to win a $100.00 Johnny Cupcakes gift card."

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho

This opportunity increased my laughs over the Psycho photo-op at Madam Tussad's. I photoshopped the photo and was the first to submit an entry. =) Once again, I am glad I wore a Johnny Cupcakes shirt that day.

The contest winner will be announced on Monday, April 23 at noon (EST).






I will leave you with videos over the opening of the L.A.s shop in 2008. Johnny opened a shop in Los Angeles because 30% of his orders come from the west coast. Over 400 loyal customers stood in line for the opening.

The customers did not feel like they were making a purchase. I still hope to visit his L.A. shop for the experience. Johnny hired the same people that decorate the Disneyland characters' homes.

London has a Johnny Cupcake shop too now.

Machine of Death vol 2

Last Fall, a sci-fi anthology  of short stories called Machine of Death came out on Amazon.com. The common theme was a machine that predicted your death in a few words on a slip of paper. However, the interpretation of those words is unknown until the death comes true, which it does. Although the topic is death, the tone of some stories can be ironic and humorous.

Overall, the anthology, which is more than 400 pages, shows different aspects of society affected by the death predictions. For example, school cliques form according to death categories and the insurance company suffers. I recommend the book.  My friend got hooked from the first story. A free PDF file is provided for preview.

For the first volume, anyone could submit a short story with the theme. Volume 2 is now open for submissions until July 15! Artists may submit samples to illustrate selected stories. Please pass the word. I hope to submit a story myself. =)

For more information, click here.

Modern Fairy Tale Contest

Here's another interesting writing contest from Figment.  You adapt an existing fairy tale to contemporary times. Figment's promoting Jackson Pearce's Sisters Red, a modern retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. The prizes are a copy of Sisters Red, a copy of The Complete Fairy Tales of Brothers Grimm, and a spotlight in the Figment blog. The cover of Sisters Red intrigues me.

Entries must be under 1,200 words and emailed this time to fairytale@figment.com before Sunday, May 8 12am EST.  DOUBLE CHECK the deadline hour on Saturday and Sunday! For the dystopia contest, the hour shifted from 12am to 9pm EST. Plus the wrong tag was given but the fairy tale contest doesn't  require any. Just double check to make sure your entry counts.

My dystopian entry did not meet the new deadline, but click here if you are interested in reading it (Fahrenheit 451 and  Nineteen Eighty-Four were influences). It's less than 600 words. If the contest issues continue then I may delete my account. Writing prompts with a deadline are good exercises though.

I do not think I can enter the current contest, but good luck to those entering. Fairy tales are another one of my interests. In fact, I plan to blog about some research on certain tales.